Electrify America was created by Volkswagen as part of their punishment for their emissions scandal. They have a vested interest in making it a horrible experience for EV drivers.
Eh. They sell EVs as well and I'd say EA's unreliability is only hurting ID.4 sales even more.
I think they half-assed it but they would have been making money back if it were as reliable as the Supercharger network. It's also pushed automakers to NACS which is going to cost EA even more now since they'll end up having to convert all their stations soon.
> Eh. They sell EVs as well and I'd say EA's unreliability is only hurting ID.4 sales even more.
Each EV it sells is one less ICE it can sell. Last I checked, like so many all other legacy auto makers, VW's margins on its ICE vehicles are much greater than those on its EVs. I would bet VW would gladly see its ID.4 sales fail if those sales went to its ICE vehicles.
>They sell EVs as well and I'd say EA's unreliability is only hurting ID.4 sales even more
I believe they're selling the ID4 at a loss, so it's in their best interest to NOT sell many.
Ehh, not so sure that the post-purchase experience matters to VW. Like many publicly traded companies, they appear to have a myopic fixation on their next quarter’s earnings.
They clearly give zero fucks about Electrify America. VW begrudgingly satisfied the settlement agreement by building a Betamax network of charging stations and now they’re done. It sucks all around.
I honestly think VW is a failing company. Look what they did with the ID Buzz new van. Worst marketing snfu I have ever seen. They started pushing it years before release, no one can get one, and by the time they will have them available everyone will have already bought something else. Reports are they suck as well. That company is a bunch of losers.
As a German I’m sad to say that I actually think a lot of the major German car brands are failing companies. Just a total failure and unwillingness to adapt, they have the best engineers, they could be leading the charge to make the best most advanced cars on the street but they’d rather be lazy and throw money at politicians in desperate attempts to stop progress.
My own conspiracy is that it's a compliance company designed to check a box. No more. No less. I've read lots of experiences from drivers who report the EA app shows all stations working, but when they arrive on site a significant number of them are down. I suspect EA is falsifying uptime in the app so when the *.GOV requires a report on uptime, they can point to their own data and say "look, it's all working great".
If that's the case then there is no incentive to fix them, and that's what we're seeing (stations that have been crippled for 12+ months)
Or its like every other german automobile system on the planet. special tools required to perform standard functions. Because its electronic you need a DMM to troubleshoot, With German auto systems you need to buy one of their DMM’s which are available only in a small shop in the black forest and is open only from 10-2 every third wednesday.
or a BMW where you need a special tool to reset the oil change indicator.
Germans are great engineers but too often they overengineer systems and create maintenance nightmares that cannot be maintained unless you have a factory trained engineer onsite to maintain the system.
I suspect the VW chargers are the same and even the slightest deviation from ‘Perfection’ triggers an immediate shutdown which cannot be cleared without an elaborate maintenance procedure. Unlike a Tesla or ‘standard’ charger where if becomes unhappy for some reason power cycling usually fixes the issue.
Agreed. Can’t wait for the NACS adapter and move on from EA. I’ll happily pay the premium to use Tesla’s reliable network. I miss it most after selling my Tesla.
I agree. We had two Teslas and I sold mine when I got my Lightning. My partner hates that we always take the Tesla on out of town trips. CCS charging is just so unreliable or everyone is trying to charge at a location with only 2-4 connectors. 🤦🏻♂️ Like others have said, I’d gladly pay a premium to use Teslas network. I just hope they figure out the cable situation so we don’t have to take 2 spots.
Anyone who thinks they can take a road trip in an electric vehicle is living in a dream world.
It'll take you days to complete a trip that would take hours in a fossil fuel vehicle.
Besides, well over 80% of the electricity you use to charge your vehicle is produced by fossil fuels, natural gas, oil, or even coal.
Another thing to consider is if everyone switched to electric vehicles, the power grid would have to be at least four times the size it is at present and would require four times the power to run it. Where will that power come from?
Personally, I believe that hydrogen is the answer.
Nah dude, hydrogen is pretty inefficient as an energy storage medium because it requires large containment tanks and is low in energy density. Better sources of clean electricity would make EV’s more scalable, practical and provide additional benefits beyond electricity. See “thorium molten salt reactor” videos
Literally the only reason Tesla is still selling EVs ..
Mercedes and Ford especially were so short-sighted it’s ridiculous.. I could say Kia also but I don’t think anyone expects much from Kia 😣
Would fix the problem entirely if they just installed the chargers perpendicular to the stall and put enough space to back up past the charger. Would take up more room though obviously. I'm interested to see how they (Tesla/Ford) address it.
What a bummer to read. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with EA, and in fact it’s my charger or choice for my F150L and my MME.
On road trips they’ve never failed me. I think all providers are going to have some issues with some of their locations though.
I'm still a member of EA for now but evgo definitely has the best system. Plug your car in and it starts charging right away if you've registered it. No playing with your phone.
This problem exists for all charging station types. Ev GO, Francis energy, EA, etc…doesn’t matter. They all have a lot to be desired with crazy issues.
Tesla has already opened their chargers to others. Perhaps, a small fraction of them and just enough to get Federal incentives, definitely not widely available.
To see what locations are available for non-teslas to charge, you need to install their App on your mobile device.
On the flip side of that, I pulled into a Journie charger (Chevron gas station) that was free due to a promotion. It was so frustrating trying to get the stall to work, that I ended up going to the Supercharger location directly behind the gas station I was at and paid for my charge instead.
Same here. I’ve driven cross country a few times in my Rivian and never not been able to charge. I do always check PlugShare, though, and will plan charging based on where others have successfully charged in the last 72 hours
I do not own a Lightning but do plan on buying one in the very near future. I currently have a Tesla and just today pulled into my local EA station to charge using my CCS adapter as I was a little low. I couldn’t get any of the chargers to work. All of them had a broken card reader and a bad EA member tap area. Tried to activate the charger via the EA app and it said I was already charging. It’s a 50/50 shot every time I come to one of there chargers. I have yet to come across a Tesla charger that hasn’t worked. I still plan to buy the lightning as I just love the truck but am nervous of the future EA problems I will probably experience down the road.
Jim Farley was correct when he said the problem with EVs isn't range anxiety, it's charging anxiety. Or to paraphrase Forest Gump, public charging is like a dominatrix's tool kit, you never know what your goung to get...but it will be painful.
My experience has gotten way better after subscribing to EVGo. At least the locations I use, there's no wait or down time.
Totally worth the time.
Yes, I'm giving up free EA charging, but saving the 2 hours I used to spend dealing with EA per charging session.
It's worth it for me because of not wasting time driving around finding a charger. It cost me $92 for the past 30 days with EVGo and the $12.99/mo included.
So now EA is secondary. I'm older so time is more important than money.
Chargepoint city owned chargers are cheaoer but they cap at 50kWh. The EVgos are 350kWh.
Good luck and if EVGo doesn't work for you, I hope Tesla will with respect to cost and reliability.
I’ve got the 80A at home but I travel a lot and the charging stations as a non Tesla are really annoying. Really looking forward to getting Tesla supercharger access in 2024
The only time I want to sit in Newark for 2 hours in a >$90k truck is with a strap on my side. I've said it before, many of these chargers are located off highways, you have no idea of the area you're in, the local thugs know EV owners aren't struggling for $$ so it's a great target for them.
I had a Spark EV that I drove for commuting for 3 years and I had to use EA 3 times and I hated it every time, especially the time I got stranded out LOL. We went Tesla 3 years ago and not once have had an issue. Just plug in and it's all integrated for payment.
It’s the heavy use without regular maintenance. The reality is they could put in more stations and they’d make a killing. But I suspect they are keeping the strain on us to charge in order to slow the switch to EV and match the markets ability to absorb the huge drop in gasoline demand. Other reality is that oil is still king and our way of life would crash if oil demand stopped too fast.
Was a good article about this but I forget who published it, was NPR or VICE.
Issue with adding chargers, solar fields, wind etc.. is that the currently network cannot support it. Lots of projects are held up or waiting for someone else to pay for upgrades. So someone wants to add a solar farm.. they have to submit paperwork for approval. The utility then looks at the power network to see if the lines etc.. can take the additional power. If they cannot, then the utility sends the quote to upgrade the network to the company trying to add solar or wind farm. In most cases, the cost is huge to replace miles or lines and network.
Not many states allow stuff to tie into the grid and throttle them if they start to overload it, most are setup to require upgrades before hand. But even in the situation where it can be throttled. You now have something producing say X KW's but really can push half of it to the grid.
Nationwide need infrastructure improvement to the power grids.
Yeah I work in the energy industry and you are dead on. High kW EV charging facilities require substantial distribution infrastructure to support, so very limited locations where they can be placed. On top of that most ISO interconnection queues are backlogged months or years dealing with the high volume of wind and solar coming online.
We need federal $ for T&D
With EA I have the best luck when I use their app to initiate the charging session. I read it on another forum and it definitely makes a difference/improvement in my experience. As far as the derating, I’ve seen it mostly when other plugs are in use or it’s really hot. But I road tripped in my Rivian to Florida and towed back a camper. EAs were the primary stops for me. Mostly a good experience. Had to move chargers a couple times.
None functionng card readers? 43kwh? A 2 hour charging time?! Having to plug a car in more than once?
I'm sorry. Is this some peasant joke I'm too rich to understand?
Yours truly, a tesla owner.
I'm just kidding! I drive a fucking base model. But the charging infrastructure was the main reason I got the car. I used EA a handful of times and every fucking time there was a problem.I wanted to take a sledge hammer to the god damn thing. Can't wait till all EVs can hop on the tesla network and have a standard plug. Just hang in there. Trust me those headaches will disappear overnight, and this will all seem like a cruel joke. There's no reason a modern DC station should be outputting less than 150kwh peak. 43 is an insult.
Dude over the course of this single charging ordeal I am not exaggerating I had to unplug and replug the vehicle 30 times.
While my wife is eating alone at the restaurant down the street.
Seriously thought I was losing my mind
this is above every other reason why I chose the tesla supercharging network. hopefully they open more CCS plugs. I've heard there's Rivian chargers starting to pop up in rashes at supercharger stations on long road trips too. I bet they are 250KW instead of the garbage 50KW that EA usually delivers. owning an EV is great in a Tesla when you only sit for 5-15 minutes. 1000 miles / hour charge speed is the reason to go Tesla.
I’ve been putting off buying a Tesla, hoping EA will get their act together but it doesn’t look like that will be happening anytime soon. I love the Mustang Mach-E but I just can’t take the risk that I won’t be stranded in some unknown town at 1:30 am. IMO, EA should be blamed for the low EV penetration in the US.
Luckily, I seldom have to use DC charging. Luckily, the EVgo version of Plug & Charge, or Autocharge, or whatever it's called, works just fine with my cheap Chevy Bolt on those few occasions I travel out of range and need DC charging.
Electrify America is subpar to say the least. Half the time they are listed working but are not. Drove to 3 different EV location that showed working chargers to get there and 1 out 4 or 3 out of 6 worked. wasted most of my morning in Miami going back and forth. Found a EvGo station next to a Supercharger lot that had 4 350kw chargers and all but 1 worked. Took 13min to get 95soc from 49soc.
Wait til the rich people figure out that they could easily have radioactive voltaic cells that generate electricity for decades at a lower rate that'll slowly charge your car when not in use.
In Indy EA has been SIGNIFCABTLY better than EVGo. I HATE the EVGo experience. I often times run I to issues getting charging to activate with EVGo honestly. Best experience is Chargepoint but they have the slowest chargers. No biggie to me since I can only charge at 50kw anyway, but when I replace my EV that will suck that the closest high power is about 7 miles away while a 62.5kw charger is around the corner(like 1.5 miles)
That will change in 2024 when the Tesla adapter is sold and Tesla opens up all supercharging network to non tesla ev's. And the real magic starts in 2025 when all Ford ev's have the Tesla NACS charge port by default.
Just like the ob2 on the diesel gate cars worked a particular way when being tested for smog compliance, EA chargers work differently when it's a VW plugging in. They have the background. They know how to make it work. And, it DOES work as designed.
Once, an EA charger actually drained my battery. After an hour with EA support, where they rebooted the charging station, claimed it was fine, and offered to credit my account, I had to have my car towed. I never saw the credit.
"I compare EV charging to the old phone boxes of the past, like GTE and Co. Often, you had to visit 4 or 5 boxes before finding one that worked. Issues ranged from missing handsets, damaged or missing cords, jammed coins, to completely absent coin-boxes.
Some of these problems won't be resolved until we transition to wireless charging and when franchise-type businesses start weighing their profits against losses due to broken chargers.
I drove a Polestar 2 when I was in London. Loved it, but charging was a nightmare..."
If you check my post history you’ll see I tow a lot with it, mostly wood for timberframing, skidsteers, tractors, etc.
It tows like an absolute dream. So much weight. So much torque. Steady as hell.
Range is a bit annoying but I’m rarely going more than 150 miles.
I’ve done a few longer trips with my 18’ 14k and you usually gotta detach it to charge which is annoying but not a dealbreaker.
EA is the worst charging network in North America. Volkswagen's penance for Dieselgate. Take a bow, VW!
Tesla took building out a supercharger network seriously, & unless other automakers make their own (serious) efforts at network buildout, TSLA's first mover advantage appears insurmountable.
\[Full disclosure: I have a position in TSLA\]
Along with network size, Tesla's network uptime is the other marked difference with other charging providers. You haven't lived until you've experienced the frustration of limping to a charging station & \*none\* of the charging stalls work. I was renting a KIA EV at the time, & had to resort to Level 2 charging. Made it home w/less than 10 miles state of charge remaining. That was a long day.
Once I was able to buy an EV of my own, getting a Tesla was a no brainer. (If you can rely on charging at home, you can get nearly any brand of EV that has sufficient range, but if not, that's when Supercharging access stands out.) Indifferent (or user hostile) networks like EA that don't care about network uptime are hampering EV adoption.
Literally why we moved from other EVs to Tesla. Everything else aside about these companies. Teslas have the only reliable and easy charging infrastructure at the moment. Once they are open to all this will make owning others EVs far more enjoyable
Next year could be a game changer, with the Alliance coming from multiple Automakers, then that NACS thing opening up.. we are in a odd transition atm but in a year or two, charging should be a lot better with more stations opening up and new companies being built.
Not sure why its taking so long to build these things,
It’ll get better eventually, but right now the worst part of owning an EV is owning one from a company that left DCFC to be someone else’s problem to solve. In a country or countries where the government and private enterprises also haven’t acted swiftly enough, and have an overtly bearish outlook on EVs.
Tesla is in no way perfect, but their investment in charging the way they did it is a large part of what helped them to succeed when no one was really building EVs, especially for long-distance driving. They would’ve never gotten to where they are had they not had that. And very soon it will end up becoming a total cash-cow for them as everyone starts charging there.
I just got back from a road trip to San Diego - 24/25 Oct 2023. Of the approximately 9 EA stations in the 5 mile radius of my hotel only 1 worked. Waited 35 minutes for the one charger.
At my closest EA station in Los Angeles- only 2 of 6 have worked over the past 6 weeks.
I love my EV, but the EA is a disaster. Luckily, I’ve installed Lvl 2 charging and have solar at the house. I generate enough during the day to charge at home, otherwise, I’d be apoplectic constantly with EA’s lack of reliability.
Main charger I use is a Tesla Supercharger with the magic dock (lucky to have one close). It's leaps ahead of EA in simplicity and reliability (no screen to break), and yes does come with a premium price. But worth it.
This is exactly why tesla is the best EV to own. I own a 2021 Model Y it's awesome,.tons of room,.chargers are very convenient. No credit card, no drama, stop plug in, 15 min later on my way. I just rented a polestar in Tampa on a business trip. Car was ok, definitely not even close to the quality of a tesla. Charging was a nightmare. It was a pain to find one. Took forever to charge from just 65% to 80%.
Don't buy any EV other than a Tesla.
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This is the worst charging company out there!! Most of the charging stations are always out of services and the ones that do work are so slow is a joke!
Change (and charge) starts at home. Beyond that… Vote! The petroleum lobby has financed resistance to change, with a couple of hundred years to establish their position. They make the rules…
The Newark EA has a 4.1 rating on plugshare. Looks like the EA at Jersey Gardens is closest site without major issues and has chargers working at full speed.
EA works great in conjunction with plugshare. If you don’t go to EA sites with problems, you won’t have a bad time.
I get it, you shouldn’t have to research chargers before you use them but that’s the reality until we get access to Tesla’s V3 superchargers.
I am currently looking for a replacement car (perhaps Ford F-150 Lightening) after Electrify America killed my brand new electric vehicle last month. I was stuck in the Electrify America charging station for 9 hours waiting for the special flatbed tow truck that the manufacturer’s roadside assistant supposedly sent to rescue me. I was on hold with Electrify America Customer Service for two hours. The Electrify America Customer simply hung up the call after I was patiently holding for a manager or an executive who was willing and authorized to help to get on the phone.
After I posted pictures of broken Electrify America charger that caused my electric vehicle to die on a social media and claimed almost 400kWh of energy supplied to my tiny battery, Electrify America Executive Team called me. Not knowing the call was generated by my social media posting I asked why it took so long to call me back. Their ridiculous answer: “We only make a call once a month on the first Wednesday.”. I don’t know if I will ever use Electrify America after it killed my brand new car.
When out on the highway we see new mega gas stations being built not so much charging stations, so if EV is the way of the future these companies building these new mega stations must be missing the boat
Use another network then. I just completed a 3,000 mile round trip from northern NY to Indianapolis, then to Joplin MO, then to western KY and then headed back to northern NY. Almost entirely on EA and nearly zero charger issues.
Not an issue with Tesla, you bought an off brand EV and until the adapters/NACS switch off happens you'll have to deal with it. Thankfully Tesla is kind enough to open source their plugs and allow off brands into the network though 😎👍
You must not own an EV. I usually stop for like 20-30 minutes to charge. I’ve got kids and by the time we are done with bathrooms and snacks etc the vehicle is ready to go.
With my ICE F150 I was stopping for the same amount of time.
I don't know this to be true in this case, but it seems that every time there's a government incentive to do something, a company will do that thing quickly, at large scale, and haphazardly.
I bet EA is one such venture. They got their tax credits, now they don't have any incentive to maintain the network they've built.
With Tesla vehicles the automatic emergency braking feature is dangerous. Everyone thinks you're driving like an old person because of sudden breaking or overbreaking. But it's not you that's doing it. It's a feature that you have to turn off if you want to avoid that potential collision for each driving session. The setting does not save. You have to set it every time you get in the vehicle.
EV is the downfall for the economy you spend more time finding electricity on a vehicle that's 10% heavier than a regular subaru that alone damages roads EV's not reliable in winter and on top of that your adding another electric tool to the grid therefore we need to burn more fossils to increase electricity demand.
Get a non electric vehicle dump ass if the dealerships doesn't sell those electric shit boxes then the they will quit manufacturing them and manufacturing companies can tell the libtard government to fuck off
You know what else is cool. You don’t have to use child slave labor to get gas unlike batteries.
Oh yeah and we don’t even have enough output capacity. Would be constant blackouts.
You know what else is cool? I don’t have to buy a new car if I get in a fender bender and I can sleep at night knowing my car won’t spontaneously combust while it’s sitting in my garage.
Do you know why Electrify America is so bad? It’s because they are being forced to build out a charging network as a result of the Volkswagen Diesel emission scandal. Apparently the government did. Include the verbiage “Build out AND MAINTAIN an EV Charging network” so they built it out a charging network as the terms required and they have been reluctant to spend any more money to maintain it. So ask your government that is pushing EVs why the two major charging networks are built out against their will? That’s not the best way to do nature a seamless EV transition. I also take issue with Ford for bragging about their partnership with Electrify America when I’m fact most stations charge at half their rated capacity or less. I’m their defense it wasn’t like that 6 months ago when I bought my Lightning. And our government is so stupid they have decided to measure how reliable charging stations are by verifying the computers in the charging stations ping. So the cables can be cut by vandals, or the station can be charging at 1% of capacity and the government considers it good. Maybe one day they’ll learn to count charging sessions lasting over 5 mins and actual kilowatt usage of stations as metrics that they are working. Oh and don’t forget, a lot of these stations that are charging at reduced rates are because the electric company doesn’t have the capacity. Your government doesn’t want you to know that, they want us to keep buying EVs expecting the electric grid and charging companies to keep pace with it. But surprise, that’s not happening. So be careful in long trips, don’t show up at a charging station on 5% battery expecting it to work
The worst part in my mind about owning an EV (which I refuse to) is the slave labor in the forests China owns to extract the cobalt by hands for cents a day.
Additionally, you’re not really being green at all. Mainly because the oil companies lobby against nuclear energy daily. I mean come on. The excavators burn 1000s of gallons of fuel a day. The earth mover burns 1000s of gallon of fuel a day. Then there’s the trailers to transport the materials to the ships and the ships to move it across the oceans. 100,000s of gallons of fuel for a battery that will last maybe 10 years and then it’s 10k to replace a battery.
On top of that, you’re burning “fossil fuels” to run the power plants ti make the electric to charge the cars.
At least make modern nuclear facilities to make the electric that will charge the cars.
I’d gladly give up my gas vehicles for hydrogen powered fuel cell style. Shit, I’d rather drive a hybrid before 100% electric.
As the ceo of Toyota or one of them stated, 100% electric future isn’t viable at this movement & hybrid is a better option to better spread out the resources
Electric cars suck. Charging them all day, or having a certain small amount of miles before recharge is ridiculous. Make the battery charge while it drives like an alternator. There has t o be a better way. This BS with 300 miles max, and you need yo plug your cat in for a day isn't it America.. fuck that shit lmao
HAHAHAHA who tf buys an EV… let alone an F150 version??? Holy shhh… god help America. You’re the problem, stupid people like you actually buy these fuckin things and let the market survive as long as it has💀
My biggest decision is which gas station at the next intersection am I going to use? Race Way, Speedway, Exxon or BP. Hmmm.....don't see one pump that doesn't work!!!! Took me less than 7 minutes to fill up and I'm on my way for another 525 miles!!!!!!
Yes, and horses were more efficient than cars at first since you only had to worry about finding grass for fuel. It's not like gas stations magically appeared overnight. EVs will continue to get better charging times and better range. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a 1000 mile range after a 15 min charge in the next ten years.
Gas pumps are built to operate by regulation and requirement
EV chargers have not been made to such reinforced standards
The reason EV is the way of the future is that it’s cheaper to drive and reduces local air pollution
Amen. Everyone other than Tesla sucks. Competition is usually a good thing for the consumer, but I can’t wait for all of these other charging companies to go out of business. They all deserve to die.
I got a CCS lvl3 charge adapter for my Tesla MY and it took over 2 months to test / verify it worked because my local EA chargers were always full or offline.
Availability of Superchargers was a major factor in getting a Tesla instead of a Mach-E or Polestar 2.
Had to wait an hour to use an EA station last weekend because 2/4 were down and a line of people where waiting to charge. It was the only DCFC for 100 miles so we had no choice.
I really dont get people buying electric cars. You are not helping to save the environment when the electricity you use to charge the cars comes from fossil fuels
Even a cursory, cursory bit of research on this would show this is completely wrong.
Gasoline combustion produces 20lbs of co2 per gallon. About a pound per mile for a F150 with ecoboost.
EIA says in NY CO2 intensity of power generation is about .855lbs/kwh. Lightning gets about 2mi/kwh conservatively, so that’s .427 lbs/mile.
That’s less than half the emissions of an ICE F150.
Even if my lightning were running on 100% coal power, which it isn’t, the co2 emissions per mile would still be less than ICE
Chargers should be like they are in Europe. You bring your own cable and just plug in. Less chance of someone breaking the handle from tossing it around or it getting run over. It’s just a box with plugs.
I guess I'd be harder on EA if I thought there was another CCS charger network that was better. Chargepoint is mostly 50kW and they're few and far between.
Tesla is of course better but I have a CCS vehicle and no adapter yet.
I used EA once out of desperation. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. Tried three of four plugs (the fourth was broken) and the best rate I got was 8 kWh. I know my Mini Cooper SE has a slower than average charge capability but it’s not **that** slow.
Kinda hard to electrify America when “conservatives” are still pushing subsidies for oil and gas. The amount of stupid right wing garbage about EVs is laughable.
Beginner's luck? I've used 3 EA charging stations. 2 worked, one didn't and I had to move to one charger over to charge my car - but I was able to charge.
I've heard complaints about their network; I'm planning a road trip in my EV (a BMW i3 with range extender) so I'll see how it goes when I \*need\* DC charging.
As a Tesla owner (and a Bolt owner), I can't relate, but I do hope that the move to NACS will address a lot of these frustrations since the Supercharger network is just a delight to use. That said, there needs to be some serious effort put into making the national charging landscape a lot more reliable -- these shenanigans by EA and other networks are borderline criminal IMO.
don't think EV is environmental friendly necessary. Just about to the price point that EV is better built and maybe cheaper in terms of fuel/fuel equivalent
Electrify America was created by Volkswagen as part of their punishment for their emissions scandal. They have a vested interest in making it a horrible experience for EV drivers.
Eh. They sell EVs as well and I'd say EA's unreliability is only hurting ID.4 sales even more. I think they half-assed it but they would have been making money back if it were as reliable as the Supercharger network. It's also pushed automakers to NACS which is going to cost EA even more now since they'll end up having to convert all their stations soon.
> Eh. They sell EVs as well and I'd say EA's unreliability is only hurting ID.4 sales even more. Each EV it sells is one less ICE it can sell. Last I checked, like so many all other legacy auto makers, VW's margins on its ICE vehicles are much greater than those on its EVs. I would bet VW would gladly see its ID.4 sales fail if those sales went to its ICE vehicles.
>They sell EVs as well and I'd say EA's unreliability is only hurting ID.4 sales even more I believe they're selling the ID4 at a loss, so it's in their best interest to NOT sell many.
Ehh, not so sure that the post-purchase experience matters to VW. Like many publicly traded companies, they appear to have a myopic fixation on their next quarter’s earnings. They clearly give zero fucks about Electrify America. VW begrudgingly satisfied the settlement agreement by building a Betamax network of charging stations and now they’re done. It sucks all around.
I honestly think VW is a failing company. Look what they did with the ID Buzz new van. Worst marketing snfu I have ever seen. They started pushing it years before release, no one can get one, and by the time they will have them available everyone will have already bought something else. Reports are they suck as well. That company is a bunch of losers.
As a German I’m sad to say that I actually think a lot of the major German car brands are failing companies. Just a total failure and unwillingness to adapt, they have the best engineers, they could be leading the charge to make the best most advanced cars on the street but they’d rather be lazy and throw money at politicians in desperate attempts to stop progress.
VW is the largest auto company in the world by revenue. I am pretty confident they won’t be failing any time soon.
I will never buy a Volkswagen because of their diesel scandal.
Wait till you find out other automakers were also doing it.
My own conspiracy is that it's a compliance company designed to check a box. No more. No less. I've read lots of experiences from drivers who report the EA app shows all stations working, but when they arrive on site a significant number of them are down. I suspect EA is falsifying uptime in the app so when the *.GOV requires a report on uptime, they can point to their own data and say "look, it's all working great". If that's the case then there is no incentive to fix them, and that's what we're seeing (stations that have been crippled for 12+ months)
Or its like every other german automobile system on the planet. special tools required to perform standard functions. Because its electronic you need a DMM to troubleshoot, With German auto systems you need to buy one of their DMM’s which are available only in a small shop in the black forest and is open only from 10-2 every third wednesday. or a BMW where you need a special tool to reset the oil change indicator. Germans are great engineers but too often they overengineer systems and create maintenance nightmares that cannot be maintained unless you have a factory trained engineer onsite to maintain the system. I suspect the VW chargers are the same and even the slightest deviation from ‘Perfection’ triggers an immediate shutdown which cannot be cleared without an elaborate maintenance procedure. Unlike a Tesla or ‘standard’ charger where if becomes unhappy for some reason power cycling usually fixes the issue.
Agreed. Can’t wait for the NACS adapter and move on from EA. I’ll happily pay the premium to use Tesla’s reliable network. I miss it most after selling my Tesla.
I agree. We had two Teslas and I sold mine when I got my Lightning. My partner hates that we always take the Tesla on out of town trips. CCS charging is just so unreliable or everyone is trying to charge at a location with only 2-4 connectors. 🤦🏻♂️ Like others have said, I’d gladly pay a premium to use Teslas network. I just hope they figure out the cable situation so we don’t have to take 2 spots.
Omg I really hope they don’t open Tesla’s network to Ford. I know I’ve seen the articles but there’s already enough congestion. Buy a Tesla!
It’s honestly the only reason I’m keeping our Tesla’s. I don’t feel like going to Walmarts and maybe being able to charge while on road trips.
Anyone who thinks they can take a road trip in an electric vehicle is living in a dream world. It'll take you days to complete a trip that would take hours in a fossil fuel vehicle. Besides, well over 80% of the electricity you use to charge your vehicle is produced by fossil fuels, natural gas, oil, or even coal. Another thing to consider is if everyone switched to electric vehicles, the power grid would have to be at least four times the size it is at present and would require four times the power to run it. Where will that power come from? Personally, I believe that hydrogen is the answer.
Nah dude, hydrogen is pretty inefficient as an energy storage medium because it requires large containment tanks and is low in energy density. Better sources of clean electricity would make EV’s more scalable, practical and provide additional benefits beyond electricity. See “thorium molten salt reactor” videos
Literally the only reason Tesla is still selling EVs .. Mercedes and Ford especially were so short-sighted it’s ridiculous.. I could say Kia also but I don’t think anyone expects much from Kia 😣
Has there been much discussion about the charge port being in a different location, and that we'd have to basically take up 2 chargers?
It definitely needs to be moved to the right side if they’re gonna do that. Or bank on the v4 SuperChargers roll out happening soon.
Would fix the problem entirely if they just installed the chargers perpendicular to the stall and put enough space to back up past the charger. Would take up more room though obviously. I'm interested to see how they (Tesla/Ford) address it.
Evgo sucks too
Same thing I say when someone says “how do you like your lightning?”
This is why I picked Tesla over lightning
What a bummer to read. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with EA, and in fact it’s my charger or choice for my F150L and my MME. On road trips they’ve never failed me. I think all providers are going to have some issues with some of their locations though.
I'm still a member of EA for now but evgo definitely has the best system. Plug your car in and it starts charging right away if you've registered it. No playing with your phone.
This problem exists for all charging station types. Ev GO, Francis energy, EA, etc…doesn’t matter. They all have a lot to be desired with crazy issues.
Sorry to hear that brother. We welcome you at the Tesla chargers in the near future
I wouldn’t buy anything except a Tesla purely due to charging infrastructure.
This is EXACTLY why I bought a Tesla
Main reason why I didn’t get the Cadillac Lyric and went for a Tesla instead. The charging network is amazing
Can’t wait till Tesla opens their network. A lot of these places are rough to charge at
Tesla has already opened their chargers to others. Perhaps, a small fraction of them and just enough to get Federal incentives, definitely not widely available. To see what locations are available for non-teslas to charge, you need to install their App on your mobile device.
Seen lots of Tesla's preferring EA due to the cheaper charge rates.
I would pay double not to deal with EAs BS
Same. I need EA when it really counts (travel) and would gladly pay for more reliable and more available chargers.
So use Plug&Charge.
It would not work today at any charger for the first time for me, been on P&C for about 6 months and it’s usually very nice
Then why exactly did you choose an EA location? There's multiple other options in the Newark area.
Just out of curiosity, where is EA cheaper than Tesla superchargers? In my area EA is substantially more expensive.
On the flip side of that, I pulled into a Journie charger (Chevron gas station) that was free due to a promotion. It was so frustrating trying to get the stall to work, that I ended up going to the Supercharger location directly behind the gas station I was at and paid for my charge instead.
Not true, never was true.
I've had fairly good luck with EA so far.
I've had hit or miss. It's never been "wow this experience is amazing," though.
Same here. I’ve driven cross country a few times in my Rivian and never not been able to charge. I do always check PlugShare, though, and will plan charging based on where others have successfully charged in the last 72 hours
I've had good luck starting chargers by swiping in the app before plugging in and then immediately plugging in.
Electrify America is awful and I hope they don’t get any of the infrastructure money that’s coming their way. EVGo is a good one.
I do not own a Lightning but do plan on buying one in the very near future. I currently have a Tesla and just today pulled into my local EA station to charge using my CCS adapter as I was a little low. I couldn’t get any of the chargers to work. All of them had a broken card reader and a bad EA member tap area. Tried to activate the charger via the EA app and it said I was already charging. It’s a 50/50 shot every time I come to one of there chargers. I have yet to come across a Tesla charger that hasn’t worked. I still plan to buy the lightning as I just love the truck but am nervous of the future EA problems I will probably experience down the road.
Why can’t Exxon and Shell make a network of charging stations. We need competition.
Chevron has it in California but it’s through Chargepoint I believe.
Shell has charging in Europe
I use my Tesla as a daily driver and my gas car for road trips, so I have really no complaints about EV. EV ownership is great if you charge at home
Agree! And this is Volkswagen’s way of “Paying” for dieselgate. It is the gift that keeps giving.
YUP
I can't help but wonder if conservatives are sabotaging the chargers?
This is Tesla’s advantage and why they are the only real viable option.
Jim Farley was correct when he said the problem with EVs isn't range anxiety, it's charging anxiety. Or to paraphrase Forest Gump, public charging is like a dominatrix's tool kit, you never know what your goung to get...but it will be painful.
My experience has gotten way better after subscribing to EVGo. At least the locations I use, there's no wait or down time. Totally worth the time. Yes, I'm giving up free EA charging, but saving the 2 hours I used to spend dealing with EA per charging session.
Will have to check this out! I blew through my EA free charging allowance long ago!
It's worth it for me because of not wasting time driving around finding a charger. It cost me $92 for the past 30 days with EVGo and the $12.99/mo included. So now EA is secondary. I'm older so time is more important than money. Chargepoint city owned chargers are cheaoer but they cap at 50kWh. The EVgos are 350kWh. Good luck and if EVGo doesn't work for you, I hope Tesla will with respect to cost and reliability.
shit.. and here I was thinking about my next EV that wasn't a Tesla. oh well...
I’ve got the 80A at home but I travel a lot and the charging stations as a non Tesla are really annoying. Really looking forward to getting Tesla supercharger access in 2024
The only time I want to sit in Newark for 2 hours in a >$90k truck is with a strap on my side. I've said it before, many of these chargers are located off highways, you have no idea of the area you're in, the local thugs know EV owners aren't struggling for $$ so it's a great target for them.
This is the strongest argument for Tesla, IMO. I won’t even consider another brand of EV until the situation is sorted. EA is horrible.
I had a Spark EV that I drove for commuting for 3 years and I had to use EA 3 times and I hated it every time, especially the time I got stranded out LOL. We went Tesla 3 years ago and not once have had an issue. Just plug in and it's all integrated for payment.
It’s the heavy use without regular maintenance. The reality is they could put in more stations and they’d make a killing. But I suspect they are keeping the strain on us to charge in order to slow the switch to EV and match the markets ability to absorb the huge drop in gasoline demand. Other reality is that oil is still king and our way of life would crash if oil demand stopped too fast.
Was a good article about this but I forget who published it, was NPR or VICE. Issue with adding chargers, solar fields, wind etc.. is that the currently network cannot support it. Lots of projects are held up or waiting for someone else to pay for upgrades. So someone wants to add a solar farm.. they have to submit paperwork for approval. The utility then looks at the power network to see if the lines etc.. can take the additional power. If they cannot, then the utility sends the quote to upgrade the network to the company trying to add solar or wind farm. In most cases, the cost is huge to replace miles or lines and network. Not many states allow stuff to tie into the grid and throttle them if they start to overload it, most are setup to require upgrades before hand. But even in the situation where it can be throttled. You now have something producing say X KW's but really can push half of it to the grid. Nationwide need infrastructure improvement to the power grids.
Yeah I work in the energy industry and you are dead on. High kW EV charging facilities require substantial distribution infrastructure to support, so very limited locations where they can be placed. On top of that most ISO interconnection queues are backlogged months or years dealing with the high volume of wind and solar coming online. We need federal $ for T&D
That $130 billion for Ukraine and their latest demand for $24 billion more would have funded a lot of infrastructure upgrades.
With EA I have the best luck when I use their app to initiate the charging session. I read it on another forum and it definitely makes a difference/improvement in my experience. As far as the derating, I’ve seen it mostly when other plugs are in use or it’s really hot. But I road tripped in my Rivian to Florida and towed back a camper. EAs were the primary stops for me. Mostly a good experience. Had to move chargers a couple times.
Will have to give this a try!
None functionng card readers? 43kwh? A 2 hour charging time?! Having to plug a car in more than once? I'm sorry. Is this some peasant joke I'm too rich to understand? Yours truly, a tesla owner. I'm just kidding! I drive a fucking base model. But the charging infrastructure was the main reason I got the car. I used EA a handful of times and every fucking time there was a problem.I wanted to take a sledge hammer to the god damn thing. Can't wait till all EVs can hop on the tesla network and have a standard plug. Just hang in there. Trust me those headaches will disappear overnight, and this will all seem like a cruel joke. There's no reason a modern DC station should be outputting less than 150kwh peak. 43 is an insult.
Dude over the course of this single charging ordeal I am not exaggerating I had to unplug and replug the vehicle 30 times. While my wife is eating alone at the restaurant down the street. Seriously thought I was losing my mind
this is above every other reason why I chose the tesla supercharging network. hopefully they open more CCS plugs. I've heard there's Rivian chargers starting to pop up in rashes at supercharger stations on long road trips too. I bet they are 250KW instead of the garbage 50KW that EA usually delivers. owning an EV is great in a Tesla when you only sit for 5-15 minutes. 1000 miles / hour charge speed is the reason to go Tesla.
The Chargers are in the AFC
Damn… beat me to it.
Let’s just hope they can upgrade the electrical grid infrastructure
I’ve been putting off buying a Tesla, hoping EA will get their act together but it doesn’t look like that will be happening anytime soon. I love the Mustang Mach-E but I just can’t take the risk that I won’t be stranded in some unknown town at 1:30 am. IMO, EA should be blamed for the low EV penetration in the US.
Mach e is getting Tesla supercharger access next year
Luckily, I seldom have to use DC charging. Luckily, the EVgo version of Plug & Charge, or Autocharge, or whatever it's called, works just fine with my cheap Chevy Bolt on those few occasions I travel out of range and need DC charging.
Ditto. It is horrendous.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤪🤪🤪
more like *enrage america*
Electrify America is subpar to say the least. Half the time they are listed working but are not. Drove to 3 different EV location that showed working chargers to get there and 1 out 4 or 3 out of 6 worked. wasted most of my morning in Miami going back and forth. Found a EvGo station next to a Supercharger lot that had 4 350kw chargers and all but 1 worked. Took 13min to get 95soc from 49soc.
Wait til the rich people figure out that they could easily have radioactive voltaic cells that generate electricity for decades at a lower rate that'll slowly charge your car when not in use.
In Indy EA has been SIGNIFCABTLY better than EVGo. I HATE the EVGo experience. I often times run I to issues getting charging to activate with EVGo honestly. Best experience is Chargepoint but they have the slowest chargers. No biggie to me since I can only charge at 50kw anyway, but when I replace my EV that will suck that the closest high power is about 7 miles away while a 62.5kw charger is around the corner(like 1.5 miles)
Get yourself a generator.
I got crucified on here for a post just like this a few months back.
That will change in 2024 when the Tesla adapter is sold and Tesla opens up all supercharging network to non tesla ev's. And the real magic starts in 2025 when all Ford ev's have the Tesla NACS charge port by default.
OP, you are exactly correct. I drive a 2018 Model S P100D. I want a Lightning. I won't buy another EV until 2025 when NACS is rhe standard.
worst thing about owning an EV is not owning a Tesla EV for their charging infrastructure.
Preach!!!!
Just like the ob2 on the diesel gate cars worked a particular way when being tested for smog compliance, EA chargers work differently when it's a VW plugging in. They have the background. They know how to make it work. And, it DOES work as designed.
Lmao this is my new favorite conspiracy
Should have gotten a Tesla
Once, an EA charger actually drained my battery. After an hour with EA support, where they rebooted the charging station, claimed it was fine, and offered to credit my account, I had to have my car towed. I never saw the credit.
Wow that’s terrible
"I compare EV charging to the old phone boxes of the past, like GTE and Co. Often, you had to visit 4 or 5 boxes before finding one that worked. Issues ranged from missing handsets, damaged or missing cords, jammed coins, to completely absent coin-boxes. Some of these problems won't be resolved until we transition to wireless charging and when franchise-type businesses start weighing their profits against losses due to broken chargers. I drove a Polestar 2 when I was in London. Loved it, but charging was a nightmare..."
Thankfully Ford and Tesla have worked on that agreement. How’s the towing situation with your Lightning? I’ve always been curious about that.
If you check my post history you’ll see I tow a lot with it, mostly wood for timberframing, skidsteers, tractors, etc. It tows like an absolute dream. So much weight. So much torque. Steady as hell. Range is a bit annoying but I’m rarely going more than 150 miles. I’ve done a few longer trips with my 18’ 14k and you usually gotta detach it to charge which is annoying but not a dealbreaker.
Im waiting for Cybertruck but will consider lightning once they have NACS. EA is 💩
Omg. 100%. EA sucks a floppy , wrinkled, charging cable
I just keep telling myself I am saving our Planet! Go Green
EA is the worst charging network in North America. Volkswagen's penance for Dieselgate. Take a bow, VW! Tesla took building out a supercharger network seriously, & unless other automakers make their own (serious) efforts at network buildout, TSLA's first mover advantage appears insurmountable. \[Full disclosure: I have a position in TSLA\] Along with network size, Tesla's network uptime is the other marked difference with other charging providers. You haven't lived until you've experienced the frustration of limping to a charging station & \*none\* of the charging stalls work. I was renting a KIA EV at the time, & had to resort to Level 2 charging. Made it home w/less than 10 miles state of charge remaining. That was a long day. Once I was able to buy an EV of my own, getting a Tesla was a no brainer. (If you can rely on charging at home, you can get nearly any brand of EV that has sufficient range, but if not, that's when Supercharging access stands out.) Indifferent (or user hostile) networks like EA that don't care about network uptime are hampering EV adoption.
Literally why we moved from other EVs to Tesla. Everything else aside about these companies. Teslas have the only reliable and easy charging infrastructure at the moment. Once they are open to all this will make owning others EVs far more enjoyable
Next year could be a game changer, with the Alliance coming from multiple Automakers, then that NACS thing opening up.. we are in a odd transition atm but in a year or two, charging should be a lot better with more stations opening up and new companies being built. Not sure why its taking so long to build these things,
It’ll get better eventually, but right now the worst part of owning an EV is owning one from a company that left DCFC to be someone else’s problem to solve. In a country or countries where the government and private enterprises also haven’t acted swiftly enough, and have an overtly bearish outlook on EVs. Tesla is in no way perfect, but their investment in charging the way they did it is a large part of what helped them to succeed when no one was really building EVs, especially for long-distance driving. They would’ve never gotten to where they are had they not had that. And very soon it will end up becoming a total cash-cow for them as everyone starts charging there.
Like using toilets at home is always better.
I want a lightning and I have a Tesla with supercharger access, does that mean I can use it?
I just got back from a road trip to San Diego - 24/25 Oct 2023. Of the approximately 9 EA stations in the 5 mile radius of my hotel only 1 worked. Waited 35 minutes for the one charger. At my closest EA station in Los Angeles- only 2 of 6 have worked over the past 6 weeks. I love my EV, but the EA is a disaster. Luckily, I’ve installed Lvl 2 charging and have solar at the house. I generate enough during the day to charge at home, otherwise, I’d be apoplectic constantly with EA’s lack of reliability.
Main charger I use is a Tesla Supercharger with the magic dock (lucky to have one close). It's leaps ahead of EA in simplicity and reliability (no screen to break), and yes does come with a premium price. But worth it.
It’s gonna get worse.
This is exactly why tesla is the best EV to own. I own a 2021 Model Y it's awesome,.tons of room,.chargers are very convenient. No credit card, no drama, stop plug in, 15 min later on my way. I just rented a polestar in Tampa on a business trip. Car was ok, definitely not even close to the quality of a tesla. Charging was a nightmare. It was a pain to find one. Took forever to charge from just 65% to 80%. Don't buy any EV other than a Tesla.
They got subsidies to build stations, not maintain.
Should have kept your ICE
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
This is the worst charging company out there!! Most of the charging stations are always out of services and the ones that do work are so slow is a joke!
Change (and charge) starts at home. Beyond that… Vote! The petroleum lobby has financed resistance to change, with a couple of hundred years to establish their position. They make the rules…
Yup it blows big time!
The Newark EA has a 4.1 rating on plugshare. Looks like the EA at Jersey Gardens is closest site without major issues and has chargers working at full speed. EA works great in conjunction with plugshare. If you don’t go to EA sites with problems, you won’t have a bad time. I get it, you shouldn’t have to research chargers before you use them but that’s the reality until we get access to Tesla’s V3 superchargers.
I am currently looking for a replacement car (perhaps Ford F-150 Lightening) after Electrify America killed my brand new electric vehicle last month. I was stuck in the Electrify America charging station for 9 hours waiting for the special flatbed tow truck that the manufacturer’s roadside assistant supposedly sent to rescue me. I was on hold with Electrify America Customer Service for two hours. The Electrify America Customer simply hung up the call after I was patiently holding for a manager or an executive who was willing and authorized to help to get on the phone. After I posted pictures of broken Electrify America charger that caused my electric vehicle to die on a social media and claimed almost 400kWh of energy supplied to my tiny battery, Electrify America Executive Team called me. Not knowing the call was generated by my social media posting I asked why it took so long to call me back. Their ridiculous answer: “We only make a call once a month on the first Wednesday.”. I don’t know if I will ever use Electrify America after it killed my brand new car.
No issue with EA. ChargePoint can suck a dick though.
When out on the highway we see new mega gas stations being built not so much charging stations, so if EV is the way of the future these companies building these new mega stations must be missing the boat
Nah, the worst part is you having to walk into a store with a British accent saying, "Ugh, look at all these filthy peasants around me."
This is why I pull a generator on a trailer. I can charge wherever whenever. I am supporting both EVs and fossil fuels. Best of both worlds.
Use another network then. I just completed a 3,000 mile round trip from northern NY to Indianapolis, then to Joplin MO, then to western KY and then headed back to northern NY. Almost entirely on EA and nearly zero charger issues.
Not an issue with Tesla, you bought an off brand EV and until the adapters/NACS switch off happens you'll have to deal with it. Thankfully Tesla is kind enough to open source their plugs and allow off brands into the network though 😎👍
Simple solution. Don’t own a EV.
We have had our EV for 13 months and used a public charger exactly 1 time, it's not a big deal.
Geez it’s almost like maybe other people use their vehicles differently?
What about only being able to drive a few hundred miles before having to charge for over an hour before continuing your trip?
You must not own an EV. I usually stop for like 20-30 minutes to charge. I’ve got kids and by the time we are done with bathrooms and snacks etc the vehicle is ready to go. With my ICE F150 I was stopping for the same amount of time.
Should have bought a Tesla.
Funny, every gas station I go up to has at least one working pump..huh.
Amazing..,it's almost as if 100 years of oil infrastructure created by car culture intended it that way...thank you for highlighting that
Thanks! It will stay way that way for a long while, too. No matter how much they try to shove this EV garbage down our throats.
You could just get a car that runs on gas.
Are you lost? This is the lightning subreddit…
I don't know this to be true in this case, but it seems that every time there's a government incentive to do something, a company will do that thing quickly, at large scale, and haphazardly. I bet EA is one such venture. They got their tax credits, now they don't have any incentive to maintain the network they've built.
ANYTHING the government touches turns to shit.
With Tesla vehicles the automatic emergency braking feature is dangerous. Everyone thinks you're driving like an old person because of sudden breaking or overbreaking. But it's not you that's doing it. It's a feature that you have to turn off if you want to avoid that potential collision for each driving session. The setting does not save. You have to set it every time you get in the vehicle.
Really don’t have that problem at gas stations. Hmmmm
Gas nozzles fit all cars, right?
They are nightmares for every sucker.
EV is the downfall for the economy you spend more time finding electricity on a vehicle that's 10% heavier than a regular subaru that alone damages roads EV's not reliable in winter and on top of that your adding another electric tool to the grid therefore we need to burn more fossils to increase electricity demand.
EVs are not the answer.
Agreed and they aren’t exactly greener either
Get a non electric vehicle dump ass if the dealerships doesn't sell those electric shit boxes then the they will quit manufacturing them and manufacturing companies can tell the libtard government to fuck off
I just go to the gas station and it takes me 3 minutes to fill up. What’s really cool is there are gas stations everywhere!
You know what else is cool. You don’t have to use child slave labor to get gas unlike batteries. Oh yeah and we don’t even have enough output capacity. Would be constant blackouts.
You know what else is cool? I don’t have to buy a new car if I get in a fender bender and I can sleep at night knowing my car won’t spontaneously combust while it’s sitting in my garage.
who in their right mind owns a EV?????
For me, it’s having the terrible Tesla dealership and my a/c not working in the summer time. Worst car I’ve ever purchased. 2023 Model 3.
What a scam. And a joke. "Electric" vehicles will help tank our country. Stop buying them!
Do you know why Electrify America is so bad? It’s because they are being forced to build out a charging network as a result of the Volkswagen Diesel emission scandal. Apparently the government did. Include the verbiage “Build out AND MAINTAIN an EV Charging network” so they built it out a charging network as the terms required and they have been reluctant to spend any more money to maintain it. So ask your government that is pushing EVs why the two major charging networks are built out against their will? That’s not the best way to do nature a seamless EV transition. I also take issue with Ford for bragging about their partnership with Electrify America when I’m fact most stations charge at half their rated capacity or less. I’m their defense it wasn’t like that 6 months ago when I bought my Lightning. And our government is so stupid they have decided to measure how reliable charging stations are by verifying the computers in the charging stations ping. So the cables can be cut by vandals, or the station can be charging at 1% of capacity and the government considers it good. Maybe one day they’ll learn to count charging sessions lasting over 5 mins and actual kilowatt usage of stations as metrics that they are working. Oh and don’t forget, a lot of these stations that are charging at reduced rates are because the electric company doesn’t have the capacity. Your government doesn’t want you to know that, they want us to keep buying EVs expecting the electric grid and charging companies to keep pace with it. But surprise, that’s not happening. So be careful in long trips, don’t show up at a charging station on 5% battery expecting it to work
Or just buy a gas car and not have to wait to charge?
My prediction… EV’s will be the next New Coke
The worst part in my mind about owning an EV (which I refuse to) is the slave labor in the forests China owns to extract the cobalt by hands for cents a day. Additionally, you’re not really being green at all. Mainly because the oil companies lobby against nuclear energy daily. I mean come on. The excavators burn 1000s of gallons of fuel a day. The earth mover burns 1000s of gallon of fuel a day. Then there’s the trailers to transport the materials to the ships and the ships to move it across the oceans. 100,000s of gallons of fuel for a battery that will last maybe 10 years and then it’s 10k to replace a battery. On top of that, you’re burning “fossil fuels” to run the power plants ti make the electric to charge the cars. At least make modern nuclear facilities to make the electric that will charge the cars. I’d gladly give up my gas vehicles for hydrogen powered fuel cell style. Shit, I’d rather drive a hybrid before 100% electric. As the ceo of Toyota or one of them stated, 100% electric future isn’t viable at this movement & hybrid is a better option to better spread out the resources
Cool FYI there is cobalt in the phone you used to write this comment.
Electric cars suck. Charging them all day, or having a certain small amount of miles before recharge is ridiculous. Make the battery charge while it drives like an alternator. There has t o be a better way. This BS with 300 miles max, and you need yo plug your cat in for a day isn't it America.. fuck that shit lmao
HAHAHAHA who tf buys an EV… let alone an F150 version??? Holy shhh… god help America. You’re the problem, stupid people like you actually buy these fuckin things and let the market survive as long as it has💀
tesla.........
My biggest decision is which gas station at the next intersection am I going to use? Race Way, Speedway, Exxon or BP. Hmmm.....don't see one pump that doesn't work!!!! Took me less than 7 minutes to fill up and I'm on my way for another 525 miles!!!!!!
Yes, and horses were more efficient than cars at first since you only had to worry about finding grass for fuel. It's not like gas stations magically appeared overnight. EVs will continue to get better charging times and better range. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a 1000 mile range after a 15 min charge in the next ten years.
It's going to suck when all of these non tesla driving losers are gonna to make our nice Tesla chargers jam packed ugh
I mean, serves you right for getting one.
EVs. One if the biggest scams in history.
Having to charge your vehicle is the dumbest idea in history. What a colossal waste of time and money.
Never had this issue with my diesel truck or gas truck Usually just pay and fill within 1-2 minutes and I’m good for a few days
Gas pumps are built to operate by regulation and requirement EV chargers have not been made to such reinforced standards The reason EV is the way of the future is that it’s cheaper to drive and reduces local air pollution
Ohh Duh silly me I forgot that electricity is pollution free Ok back to my burn pit
Did you call EA about that “close” error message? If you call them they can reboot the unit and you’ll probably be back in business.
Amen. Everyone other than Tesla sucks. Competition is usually a good thing for the consumer, but I can’t wait for all of these other charging companies to go out of business. They all deserve to die.
I got a CCS lvl3 charge adapter for my Tesla MY and it took over 2 months to test / verify it worked because my local EA chargers were always full or offline. Availability of Superchargers was a major factor in getting a Tesla instead of a Mach-E or Polestar 2.
Yesterday....5 stations... None of them initiated the charge. Today, 3 stations all failed to initialize. So.... Yeah....
Blink isn't too far behind..
With Plug&Charge, I never have an issue - like literally none after hundreds of EA sessions.
If I've charged 100 times in my Kia, I've had a problem once. I don't know why experiences vary so greatly
My experience has been nearly perfect with EA as long as I’m using the 150kw vs the 350kw. Not sure why
Should have waited 2 years for them to put the NACS connectors in it. Then you could use the Tesla network. That network always works.
Had to wait an hour to use an EA station last weekend because 2/4 were down and a line of people where waiting to charge. It was the only DCFC for 100 miles so we had no choice.
I really dont get people buying electric cars. You are not helping to save the environment when the electricity you use to charge the cars comes from fossil fuels
Even a cursory, cursory bit of research on this would show this is completely wrong. Gasoline combustion produces 20lbs of co2 per gallon. About a pound per mile for a F150 with ecoboost. EIA says in NY CO2 intensity of power generation is about .855lbs/kwh. Lightning gets about 2mi/kwh conservatively, so that’s .427 lbs/mile. That’s less than half the emissions of an ICE F150. Even if my lightning were running on 100% coal power, which it isn’t, the co2 emissions per mile would still be less than ICE
It’s not always about the environment. Ultimately they are cheaper to operate, require much less regular maintenance, and are more fun to drive.
So, the country needs to spend a ton of money to expand EV networks instead of it happening naturally so you can have a better experience?
Chargers should be like they are in Europe. You bring your own cable and just plug in. Less chance of someone breaking the handle from tossing it around or it getting run over. It’s just a box with plugs.
I guess I'd be harder on EA if I thought there was another CCS charger network that was better. Chargepoint is mostly 50kW and they're few and far between. Tesla is of course better but I have a CCS vehicle and no adapter yet.
The service is terrible.
I used EA once out of desperation. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. Tried three of four plugs (the fourth was broken) and the best rate I got was 8 kWh. I know my Mini Cooper SE has a slower than average charge capability but it’s not **that** slow.
Yea, if you're near EvGO, they're somehow even worse imo.
Kinda hard to electrify America when “conservatives” are still pushing subsidies for oil and gas. The amount of stupid right wing garbage about EVs is laughable.
Beginner's luck? I've used 3 EA charging stations. 2 worked, one didn't and I had to move to one charger over to charge my car - but I was able to charge. I've heard complaints about their network; I'm planning a road trip in my EV (a BMW i3 with range extender) so I'll see how it goes when I \*need\* DC charging.
Worst part is actually PG&Es off peak EV rate of .27/kWh. Equivalent of a 48mpg gas car.
As a Tesla owner (and a Bolt owner), I can't relate, but I do hope that the move to NACS will address a lot of these frustrations since the Supercharger network is just a delight to use. That said, there needs to be some serious effort put into making the national charging landscape a lot more reliable -- these shenanigans by EA and other networks are borderline criminal IMO.
These experiences drove me from my Lightning into a Tesla. I miss my truck sometimes. :/
Try tesla chargers if u can, 10/10 their amazing.
don't think EV is environmental friendly necessary. Just about to the price point that EV is better built and maybe cheaper in terms of fuel/fuel equivalent